I hope you didn’t have to put sunglasses on when opening this page. In an attempt to hide my lousy photographic skills i’ve been adjusting the brightness/color levels of my pictures. That’s something that i never done before. While it helped improve the overall quality of my pictures, it also exposed my tendency to get carried away. It’s a medical condition that i think started when my parents refused to buy me that box of fluorescent markers when i was 7 years old. Later as a teenager in the early 90’s i started to rebel by wearing fluorescent David Bowie T-shirts and hanging out in night-clubs so that i became immuned to fluorescent lights. Now i’m at the point i don’t know how much color is too much color and the Andy Wahrols originals hanging on the walls at work have only made my condition worsen. Give me a color slider and i go nuts! I apologize if you were struck by the rays of zen, side effects usually include nausea, hallucinations, drooling and the occasional vomiting. If you’re starting to feel dizzy just sit down and drink a sip of water. If symptoms persists switch to NoRecipes.. or wear sunglasses. That’s what i do!

err.. Do you see what i mean?..

I wanted to make a pasta using sea urchin (uni) ever since i had a fantastic version at Esca. David Pasternack makes his using blue crab but i wanted to make a culinary fashion statement by switching to langoustines… Take That Pasternack!! I made a langoustine broth with the heads that i reduced a bit to intensify its flavor, i pureed and strained the sea urchin in a food processor with softened butter and piment d’espelette and added it to the broth. It immediately emulsified to create the creamiest of sauce: the mutha-sauce. It was deliciously flavored with shelfish and uni with the gentle heat of the piment d’espelette. I sauteed the tails separately before tossing them into the pasta sauce.

Pasta alla chitarra is a specialty of the Abruzzo region of italy. A Chitarra is the tool (instrument?) used to cut fresh pasta into strands. It’s basically a frame strung with music wire that looks just like a guitar, hence the name. Think of pasta alla chitarra as a square spaghetti with a rough edge, a texture that’s particulary suitable to this kind of creamy sauce. As a finishing touch i julienned some snow peas and kept them raw in ice cold water. Tossing them into the hot pasta is just enough to make them wilt a little which provides a great textural contrast and a crisp and refreshing touch. Enjoy!

Pasta alla Chitarra with Sea Urchin & Langoustines

Inspired by Esca

Serves 4

For the langoustine broth:

6 to 8 langoutines, heads removed and roughly chopped. Reserve tails

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 small onion, chopped

1 branch celery, chopped

1 small carrot, chopped

2 cloves garlic, smashed

2 tablespoons tomato paste

3/4 cup dry white wine

1 small bouquet garni: thyme, parsley stems, tarragon and a bay leaf

1 strip lemon zest

2 cups water

For the pasta sauce:

8 ounces fresh sea urchin

4 tablespoons butter, softened

1 teaspoon piment d’espelette

sea salt to taste

1 cup langoustine broth (see above)

To finish:

langoustines tails

2 tablespoons butter

salt and piment d’espelette to taste

a dozen snow peas, julienned

1 lb pasta alla chitarra, or spaghetti

For the langoustines broth:

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan and add the chopped langoustine heads. Cook until they begin to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the onion, the celery, the carrot, the garlic and continue cooking until they soften and start to stick to the bottom of the pot.

Add the tomato paste and continue cooking for another 3 minutes while stirring frequently. Deglaze with the white wine and reduce until almost nothing is left. Add the bouquet garni, the strip of lemon and the water and bring to a boil. Simmer gently until you have about 1 cup of liquid left, about 20 minutes.

When ready you should have a flavorful shellfish broth. Strain the liquid and reserve. Discard the solids.

For the pasta sauce:

Place the sea urchin, the softened butter, the espelette pepper and a good pinch of sea salt in the bowl of a food processor and process to a smooth puree.

Strain the mixture or pass it through a tamis.

If not using right away, cover and reserve in the refrigerator. If ready to proceed, place one cup of langoustine broth into a large pan and bring to a boil. Whisk in the sea urchin mixture until smooth, do not boil it. You should have a very creamy pasta sauce. If it gets too thick (and it will) use some of the pasta cooking water to bring it to the right consistency.

To finish the dish:

Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. It should taste like the sea.

Cook the pasta to al dente. Drain it and toss it in the sauce.

While the pasta is cooking, sautee the langoustine tails in butter. Season to taste with salt and piment d’espelette and toss them in the pasta and the sauce.

Dress the pasta in individual bowls or family style, top with the julienned snow peas and serve immediately. Enjoy!

No, no, it doesn’t look weirdly fluorescent (though I can’t imagine you David Bowie phase… that must have been quite the assault on the eyes! 😛 ) What it does look is delicious (even though I’ve had neither langoustines nor urchin. Sigh!).

http://staceysnacksonline.com Stacey Snacks

We ate at Esca for the first time on Friday night!
It was excellent. Nice change up on Pasternack’s dish……the brightness of the photos woke me right up this morning!

http://www.mangotomato.blogspot.com Olga

Ooh, just realized you have a new home! Looks good.

I never had sea urchin…it scares me.

http://inwiththenew.typepad.com/ Erika

Thank you for this recipe! It looks delicious!

I hoped when I saw the post’s title that Dave would be mentioned! I love that guy. And Esca… We try to eat there every time we get back to NYC.

I enjoy your site. The old format allowed you to click on your pictures to enlarge and save. Not possible now. I would occasionally put them on my desk top

http://voodoolily.blogspot.com Heather

That creamy, sunshine-colored uni sauce looks amazing.

“Chittara” still always makes me think of Thundercats. Hoooooo!

http://www.gourmettraveller88.com Janet_Gourmettraveller88

Too bad I could not buy Uni here, I want to try this recipe too. Yours and Marc’s both look so delicious.

http://www.alittlebitofchristo.blogspot.com doggybloggy

I love uni so much I dont care what you do with it – this looks bright – I mean great!

http://www.mattikaarts.com/blog matt wright

Finding decent langoustine here in Seattle is a complete bitch, but something I might try and do, since this looks so bloody fantastic. Great recipe mate. Very clean.

http://www.angrybrit.com Angry Brit

Firstly, florescent colours do not scream zen to me. (If it screams is it zen at all, actually?) It screams many things, but zen is not one of them. Secondly, I would love to make this for my dad. He put his hand on a sea urchin when we were scuba diving in Thailand a few years ago. He likes to tell us that the sea urchin attacked him. This would be a nice revenge on his part. Thirdly, DAVID BOWIE RULES!!

http://www.cookeatfret.com claudia (cook eat FRET)

holy mother of god
this is what i want
this is what i dream about

i want sea urchin sauce on my chitarra pasta with bottarga. and i want a big freakin bowl of it. and then i want you all to go away and leave me alone.

funny, how i just invited you to esca. i forgot you guys did a blogger dinner there… well gear up for another!

http://www.tavolini.blogspot.com Tavolini

Wow!! I love the sea urchin sauce! That sounds about right 😉

http://cakeonthebrain.blogspot.com cakebrain

Oh man…I used to wear my David Bowie concert shirt all the time in high school! He’s so cool! I too love the “brightening tool” for my blog pics. Brighter is always better than dark, in my opinion. I’m not into sea urchin, but looking at your pics, I’d say you could tempt me with trying it again.

http://foodhuntress.blogspot.com foodhuntress79

Wow. You’re a teenager in the early 90’s…and now you cook fantastic Euro-Japanese pasta. I’m not a big fan of uni- they pierce my feet when I bathe in the sea 😛 A painful lot! Good thing you turn them into sauce

http://artandaioli.blogspot.com/ Nicole

Well for me the colors are completely enticing! The brights and contrast is so gorgeous. I’ve never had sea urchin. Would love to try it.

http://www.bouchonfor2.com/ Mel @ bouchonfor2.com

If I could choose one dish to have on my death bed, it would involve Uni and pasta. Maybe rice. Period.

claire miller

My husband and I were in Manhattan recently and were at Esca as well and had this dish. Very creamy and rich, though our favorite was the squid ink pasta with tomato and chilis. I found that the dungeness they served in the dish was almost a throwaway next to the uni. Langoustines I think sound like a better match. More textural contrast, stronger flavor.

Argghh my eyes!;-P Actually I kind of like it, does look very Pop Artish. And your subject matter looks delightful. I’m a big fan of uni and carbs. They’re great in mashed potatoes too.

http://www.kalofagas.ca Peter

Monsieur, the photos are fab…but keep playing! As for the dish, the uni and langoustine broth have surely heightened the dish to give you a Bastille Day in the mouth.

I do hope Claire washed the dishes.

http://www.rebekkaseale.blogspot.com rebekka

Claudia at Cook Eat FRET just directed me here after reading my post about uni pasta I just had in LA. Now I can not WAIT to make this. It looks beautiful! I just don’t know how to buy sea urchin in Nashville…hopefully Claudia will have a good suggestion for that!

Just came and read, this is wow! I was seek from many blogs, but here is the best, I love it.

Millertime

OK…so how many of you commenters/readers out there have actually made this dish, eh? I just made it for valentines, substituting lobster for langostine…and I must say RI-DI-CU-LOUS!!! I live on the west coast so the uni is abundant and fresh..this was every bit as good as it looks in the bowiesque pictures above. Dang!